This spring, Amazon will unveil a new virtual currency for purchasing apps, games, and other in-app items on its hugely popular Kindle Fire tablet. Called “Amazon Coins,” the …

This spring, Amazon will unveil a new virtual currency for purchasing apps, games, and other in-app items on its hugely popular Kindle Fire tablet.

Called “Amazon Coins,” the currency is an easy way for Kindle Fire customers to spend money on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore.

Amazon says the arrangement offers app and game developers another substantial opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetization even further.

Amazon will give customers tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Amazon Coins to use on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore—apps and games must be submitted and approved by April 25 to be ready when Amazon Coins arrive in customers’ accounts.

Clearly, the effort by Amazon represents a move to introduce more users in the ecosystem to the content created by Amazon’s many dedicated developers.

“Developers continue to report higher conversion rates on Amazon compared to other platforms,” says Paul Ryder, Vice President of Apps and Games for Amazon. “Now we have another new way to help developers reach even more of our millions of customers. Amazon Coins gives customers an easy way to spend money on developers’ apps on Kindle Fire in the Amazon Appstore—and we’re giving customers tens of millions of dollars in Amazon Coins to get started. Developers who aren’t yet in the Amazon Appstore will want to make sure their apps have been submitted and approved by April 25 so they’re ready for customers to start spending their Amazon Coins.”